Verliefd, verloofd en gehuwd 1944

This is a page from an album by Werner Neufang that contains words and traces of images. Neufang has inscribed moments of ‘love, engagement and marriage’ using ink pens of different colours. The writing itself is an act of drawing. The words and letters appear to have been carefully and repeatedly gone over, as if caressing them onto the page. The hand is laboring, in a way that reminds me of Cy Twombly. The colours are muted and the paper aged. It has a fragile, intimate quality, a sense of holding something precious. Look at the way Neufang has embellished the writing with fine lines and flourishes; it is as if he wants to frame and cherish these memories. Like a memory, the images are ghostly, barely there, while the words hover above them, attempting to fix, to hold them still, but still so open to interpretation. The act of remembering itself becomes the subject.